[CK-Ledger-users] RE: Service Industry Module

[Steve G. <ckl...@gu...>]

CK,

Thanks for your perspective on this.  Yes, I suppose I am looking for a type of
job control, costing and billing functions.  However, in the context of our
business, we don't require the level of complexity in inventory management of
an engineering workshop. I'd describe it as a 'lite' version of this type of
system. I do understand the potential for inaccuracies with iventory control,
but I think the impact, at least for our business, will be minimal.

Our organization consists of many small shops. On site inventory is kept at
minimum levels for two basic reasons. 

     1. The sheer number of makes and models of consumer electronics and
frequent product updates makes stocking spare parts, other than generic items
like capacitors and resistors, unfeasible.  

     2. Due to the low replacement costs of mainstream consumer electronics,
major repairs for all but the most expensive items are often economically
unfeasible.

If an item is worth repairing and the customer consents, we order product
specific parts for the job and return any unused items. In this way, some of
the pitfalls of inventory control are avoided.

Managing and documenting the use of salvaged parts is a challenge. As you've
already guessed, it is quite common to use salvaged parts, especially in older
products where new spare parts are no longer available. How to handle this is
an age old problem in this industry (and others I'd suspect). Our current
system handles this by allowing the entry of "non-stock" line items to the job.
When invoiced, used parts are clearly identified. I'd think adding a non-stock
entry option in CK-Ledger would be possible. As far the liabilities of using
salvaged parts, we utilize a disclaimer statement that the customer signs when
dropping an item off.  This identifies that salvaged parts may be used in lieu
of new parts.

Thanks again for the feedback and guidance.  

Steve
  
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hi, Steve,

 From the look of it, it is similar to the requirement of an engineering 
workshop, ie, job control, job costing and job billing.

While it is not too difficult to produce such a system, the accuracy of 
system generated data is very difficult to ensure. The following 
operational peculiarities are usually the culprit,

1. The use of spare parts locked down from an assembly with the 
lock-down process not being recorded by the system.
2. The use of parts savaged from damaged parts/assemblies inherited from 
previous service jobs. These damaged parts never got thru the system in 
the first place.
3. The swapping of good part/assembly against damaged part/assembly in a 
service job is not being recorded. Thus, the service job is underpriced 
with the retained damaged parts waiting to be written off in the spring 
cleanup.
4. In bigger shops, there is the problem of inaccurate demarcation among 
capital spares, spares for servicing and spares available for sale.

IMHO, the rectification of these problems requires very stringent 
assembly (lock-down) control with individual part serial number tracing 
similar to those in use in aircraft maintenance systems. None of these 
is available in CK-Ledger's inventory module. What I am saying, perhaps, 
is that you may have to be prepared to accept a certain degree of 
inaccuracy given the level of immaturity of inventory control provided 
by CK-Ledger.

Just my 2 c worth.

Cheers,
CK

PS - All these also affect servicing quality, ie, consumer complaint 
about repair shops utilizing refurbished parts instead of newly 
manufactured parts.